As representatives of non-governmental organisations and scholars specialising in matters relating to the rule of law and the protection of human rights, we write this open letter so as to urge you to take immediate steps to stop the rapidly increasing legal chaos in Poland.

Lawyers of civil society group #FreeCourts Initiative comment of the current state of Rule of Law and recommend  further intensive action by the European Union to provide judical protection.

We present the analysys by Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz. The EU needs new instruments for enforcing compliance with the law. This is why the European Parliament’s decisions in January 2019 to link payments from the EU budget to the rule of law in member states and establish a Rights and Values Programme (RVP) supporting grassroots democratic efforts are so important.

We present a report made in cooperation with the European Stability Initiative about the current state of Polish judiciary. By successfully bringing the law on the Supreme Court in 2018 to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Commission showed that the EU is not helpless when its foundations areundermined. It proved that there is a powerful instrument to protect the rule of law.

The monitoring measured the time of presentation in “Wiadomości” of six national party committees and their leading candidates and evaluated the tone of presentation (neutral, positive, negative). Instances of propaganda, picture and voice manipulation, false and fake news, hate speech and omissions of important news were tracked and recorded.

The Stefan Batory Foundation Legal Expert Group welcomes the direction of the normative changes resulting from the law of 21 November 2018 on amending the law on the Supreme Court (the Amendment Act). Efforts by civil society organisations, common courts, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court and EU bodies to protect the rule of law in Poland are starting to bear fruit.

To be an effective instrument for promoting European values, the "Rights and Values Programme" should have a broader scope and be open for civil society organizations working at the local, national and transnational level. Prof. Laurent Pech (Middlesex University London) confirms in a legal opinion written for the Stefan Batory Foundation that these goals are compatible with European law in general and the legal basis proposed by the European Commission in particular.

The "Rights and Values Programme", currently negotiated by EU institutions, could become an effective measure to promote European values. However, in its current form it would have a very limited impact. Therefore a group of 154 Civil Society Organizations from 19 EU Member States calls on EU decision-makers to make the "Rights and Values Programme" more ambitious by increasing its budget, broadening the scope and simplifying accessibilty to funds.

Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) government’s policy of normalisation with Belarus has brought tangible effects. Economic exchange has grown and progress has been achieved in the field of memory policy and education of pupils from the Polish minority. However, Warsaw’s focus on economy along with silencing narrative on democratisation raise concerns among Belarusian opposition. “The normalisation of relations with Belarus should not mean that basic values are forgotten” – claims Krzysztof Mrozek in the policy paper by ideaForum of the Batory Foundation.

We present an urgent update on the ongoing devastation of the Polish Supreme Court. After the European Commission launched an infringement procedure against the unconstitutional Law on the Supreme Court, Polish authorities have not only refused to take back the law but went ahead with removing judges from their posts. Moreover, a drastic new law, passed on 20 July in unprecedented hurry, will allow the government to pack the Supreme Court and replace its chief justice as soon as possible, with very limited (if any) assessment of a given judge’s stature. The analysis, written by legal experts from the #FreeCourts initiative, outlines the status quo and calls on the Commission to urgently launch interim measures.

There is an ongoing discussion about the European Commission potentially launching an infringement procedure over the Polish Law on the Supreme Court. In this context a question concerns the competence of the Court of Justice of the EU to judge the case.

We present an analysis on this issue by two prominent legal experts, Dr. Piotr Bogdanowicz and Dr. Maciej Taborowski. The authors argue in ten short points that provisions of the Law on the Supreme Court might jeopardize the principle of irremovability of judges and thus violate Articles 2 and 19(1) of the Treaty on the EU as well as Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. On this basis they conclude that if the European Commission launched an infringement procedure over the Law on the Supreme Court, the Court of Justice of the EU would be competent to judge it.

Piotr Buras (head of the Warsaw Office of the European Council on Foreign Relations) and Gerald Knaus (chairman of the European Stability Initiative in Berlin) show how serious consequences for Poland and the European Union the politicization of courts in Poland will have. They argue that appealing against the Law on the Supreme Court to the Court of Justice of the EU by the European Commission is necessary. 

Legal Expert Group of the Stefan Batory Foundation presents a report on the consequences of legislative initiatives on independence of judiciary in Poland in 2015-2018. The report was prepared with regard to breach of the rule of law in Poland.

The Polish members of the Polish-Ukrainian Dialogue Group (Grupa Polsko-Ukraińskiego Dialogu) warn against the possible fatal consequences of introducing the amendment to the act on the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) for the relationship between our nations and countries. The statement was sent also to Ukrainian media.

The new legislation on public transparency makes deep incursions into citizens' rights. Drafted by secret services, the bill intends to address issues regarding public transparency. It is not clear what issues it wants to address since no needs analysis has been presented.